A Life Laid Down

Today's Daily Reading is from Stasi's new book The Ladder of Love, available now — order your copy today!

Serving will cost you. Laying your life down will cost you. It is meant to cost you. Love isn’t cheap; it cost the Father everything to send His Son for us. It cost Jesus everything to rescue us. In our grateful, awe-filled heart, our response to God is one of reciprocal love. We too are willing for it to cost us everything. In fact, everything is not enough.

I am not speaking of misery here, though. Yes, pouring out our life unto Jesus is costly— in time, in effort, perhaps even in friendship, salary, and reputation— but it does not make you miserable. It does the opposite; it provides a satisfaction that can- not be measured. Henri Nouwen writes, “Radical servanthood is not an enterprise in which we try to surround ourselves with as much misery as possible, but a joyful way of life in which our eyes are opened to the vision of the true God who chose to be revealed in servanthood.”

We serve Jesus because He is our role model. We serve Jesus because we want to be like Him. We serve Him because we love Him. We serve Him because we can’t help ourselves. We serve not to gain His approval or to earn a place in His heart but because we unabashedly have it. When you are feeling the cost, turn your heart back to Him. To the why behind your current costly moment.

Want more? Order your copy of The Ladder of Love today